MedWrench Q&A Blog with Randy Fuller from MYCO Instrumentation, Inc.

In today’s edition of the MedWrench blog I would like to highlight my brief Q&A session with Randy Fuller from MYCO Instrumentation, Inc. As always, Randy was more than happy to take a few minutes to share his expertise with our users, and for that I cannot thank him enough!

In the past MedWrench has blogged about things such as the refurbishing process, what to look for when buying used equipment, etc. Today’s blog post is geared more specifically towards laboratory equipment and what you should consider/avoid during the buying/selling process.  See below for insight from Randy!

Consider the following before buying or selling your used laboratory equipment

Here is what you should look for when structuring a fair deal:

• Get References on the company to plan to purchase from
• Get 100% payment in advance prior to removal of equipment
• Establish a clear and distinct time frame for receipt of payment, pick up date, and removal of equipment. -  Initial down payment and removal could take over 90 days.
• Get it in Writing! Establish purchase price in contract and make sure both parties’ signatures appear. - You may sign the contract but they often will not.  You are committed but 30-60 days later they often cancel the contract and say they never signed the deal and so it was never a valid contract.  You then have to start over trying to sell your used equipment.  The intent of this is to lock up your used equipment and then try to sell it.  If they can’t sell it, they cancel the deal.

Here is what you should avoid when structuring a fair sale

• Avoid ambiguous delivery and receivable dates - Avoid partial payments of 25-50% down with ambiguous terms for the remaining payment.  All legitimate companies in the used equipment business pay 100% in advance.  They know this is what distinguishes them from the unethical companies.
• Avoid open-ended contracts with unclear terms such as “UCI” -  They use payment terms like net 30 days UCI. They don’t tell you what UCI means. I had to google UCI to find out what it meant. "Upon Conditional Inspection” This gives them a loop hole to not pay the remaining balance.  For any reason they can say the instrument did not pass their inspection and they are no longer required to pay the remaining balance. You either have to accept their down payment as payment in full or you have to refund the down payment, refund the initial shipping cost and also pay the return shipping cost. “Huge Buyer Beware”

Be sure to visit MYCO Instrumentation, Inc. for all of your laboratory based needs!